Virgin Galactic: World’ s first commercial spaceline set for relaunch

Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic moves to return to space race,  following a fatal accident 18 months ago, which killed the test pilot  Michael Alsbury and after months of  preparation in the Mojave desert in California.  The plan was to take tourists into space on a “sub-orbital” flights with longer orbital flight in the future.

Designed to take thrill-seekers into space seats on the ride which can carry six passengers at  time  costing £174500 $250,000 each with more than 700 people said to have signed up for the journey so far.

SpaceShip Two’s testing signals return to testing for Virgin Galactic the arm of the tycoon’s empire that hopes to be the first to take tourists on trips into space.

Virgin Galactic was founded in 2004 by Sir Richard Branson, who had previously founded Virgin Atlantic airline and the Virgin Group. The Spaceship Company is a wholly owned subsidiary aerospace production company of Virgin Galactic. In July 2008, Richard Branson predicted the maiden space voyage would take place within 18 months. In October 2009 Virgin Galactic announced that initial flights would take place form Spaceport America within two years. On December 7, 2009, SpaceShip Two, was unveiled at the Mojave Spaceport. A rocket-powered test flight of Spaceship Two finally took place on April 29, 2013, with an engine burn of 16 seconds duration. The brief flight started at an altitude of 47, 000 feet and reached a maximum altitude of 55, 000 feet. While SS2 achieved a speed of Mach 1.2 (920mph) which was less than 2000 mph predicted by Richard Branson. SpaceShip Two’s second supersonic flight achieved a speed of 1100mph for 20 seconds.